In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, many businesses across the economy made commitments to support Black-owned businesses. More than three years later, at least some of those efforts continue.
In February, Wayfair introduced a supplier diversity program that expanded the company’s offering of home goods from Black-owned suppliers and made it easier for customers to seek out those products through Wayfair’s website.
- Now, customers can shop through a specific, dedicated landing page using a search filter.
- Products featured as part of the program are identified with a badge placed on the description pages.
For Wayfair’s head of supplier diversity, Shardé Marchewski, the program is the culmination of work with Black-owned suppliers that predated the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. She said Wayfair’s program aims primarily to uplift Black-owned suppliers and vendors, which can translate into future success for Wayfair.
“As a team, we all were calling diverse-owned businesses, and really trying to just coach them the Wayfair way…and help them understand what our customers are looking for,” Marchewski told Retail Brew. “What once was a grassroots initiative, then became a full-blown kind of work streaming workgroup where we put full-time resources behind it, which is where we are today.”
Worth it: Marchewski explained that Wayfair is starting with Black-owned suppliers as it lays its foundation, but will be looking at a number of key performance indicators such as views, clicks, and impressions to measure the program’s success. The hope is that increased numbers across these metrics will translate to sales bumps for the program’s participants.
- Putting aside the altruistic nature of supplier diversity programs, Marchewski said supporting diverse-owned vendors gives retailers the opportunity to expand their business relationships, which can help mitigate future risk.
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“Instead of doing 100% of your business with this one trucking firm, you can now do 80% with that trucking firm and 20% with someone else, which I think is great because it typically diversifies any risks that you may have,” she said. “Oftentimes, a lot of companies tend to go with big names or big vendors, and there are tons of small businesses who are willing to work just as hard or even harder, and they could be a better partner for you in the long term.”
Zoom out: Many big companies have introduced their own programs, including Best Buy, which plans to invest $1.2 billion through 2025 to diversify its business operations and increase resources to BIPOC suppliers.
- In 2021, Coca-Cola announced its commitment to invest $800 million in support of diverse suppliers and businesses, and its North American division pledged to nearly double its spending with minority-owned media companies over the next three years.
- A 2019 study from Hootology found that consumers who knew about Coca-Cola’s diversity initiatives were 49% more likely to use the company’s products and 45% were more likely to believe Coca-Cola values diversity.
For Marchewski’s part, she wants to make sure Wayfair’s efforts come across as genuine.
“I want our programs to truly make an impact,” she said. “I don’t want this to be an ‘of-the-moment’ type of thing where we’re only supporting diverse businesses during various cultural months. It’s something that we think about on a daily basis.”